The tech was developed by New Zealand-based fireplace manufacturer Escea and is currently available in their two latest models, the DX1500 and DL850. Both fireplaces can be operated remotely by an iOS app – shown above – eliminating the need for a dedicated remote control or any conjuring skills. An Android app is also being developed. Both models can also be integrated with home automation systems.

The list of character-building activities continues to dwindle. What’s next, an app that pitches tents? I would buy that. I have built my character using weakness and resignation.

[via Design Milk]

Steelie was crated by Frank Vogel and Paul Turner. The great thing about Steelie is that it allows you to easily tilt your tablet to just the right angle. It basically reminds me of one of those cook book stands. It has a magnetic socket, which attaches to the back of your tablet, and snaps easily onto the tabletop ball head stand.

You can also use the magnet to attach your tablet to any steel or other magnet-compatible surface, including many refrigerators.

They also make a smaller version for smartphones, which look like would work well for dashboards or desktop surfaces.

The Steelie magnet adheres to the back of your device with a strong adhesive pad, as does the smaller ball mount for phones. It’s unclear, though if the tabletop stand holds in place under its own weight or if it must be glued down as well. Also, you’ll want to make sure you keep the strong magnet away from credit cards and hard drives, so don’t dare try using one on an older hard-drive based media player.

The tablet version, with both the Steelie magnet and tabletop stand sells for $60(USD) while the smaller version for phones sells for $30.

[via Make:]

The Dark Meadow looks like just such a quality title. A survivor-horror game, that looks like it came straight from a console. Phosphor Games Studios used the Unreal Engine 3 to up the graphics and quality of the experience.

The game takes place from a first person perspective, with limited movement to keep you on the right path. You have gesture controlled melee attacks and ranged weapons to deal with the monsters in the game. Right now the game is available on iOS devices for $5.99 (USD), and it will come to Android in the first quarter of 2012.

[via Ubergizmo]

When you push the button on top of the Little Printer, the printer gathers up all the information that it has received and prints it out into a kind of tiny personal newspaper.

You’ll set up your personal preferences and subscriptions on a companion app for your smartphone.

I thought we were shunning paper in favor of Kindles and the like, I guess now we like it again.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

This is the first in a planned family of products that will be called Berg Cloud. Each will wirelessly connect to a box that plugs into your router, and they can communicate with other web-enabled services. Just configure them all with your phone.

The Tiny Printer will be available sometime in 2012, for an unknown price. If you’re interested in one, you can sign up for their e-mail list now.

[via Wired]

These lighter lithium jelly batteries might someday replace polymer gel batteries. They will contain about 70% of a liquid electrolyte that can be molded in all sorts of funky shapes. This could mean the advent of non-rectangular phones and tablets. While the thought seems interesting, it’s going to be a design challenge to get a device like that right.

These jelly batteries are supposed to cost as little as 10 to 20% of polymer batteries, easy to produce and resistant to damage. But they’re still not edible.

[via The Register via Dvice]

Designed by James Stumpf of ENTERAX, the Levitatr is an aluminum Bluetooth keyboard which offers a unique innovation – elevating keys. That is, when the keyboard isn’t in use, the keycaps retract flat into its face. When you want to type, just press a button and the keys pop up and backlighting turns on.

The retractable keys should also keep crumbs from getting stuck between keys too, and I know how often you’re sitting at the Starbucks chomping on a scone while you type, right?

Despite being a little thicker than I’d like it to be, it’s still pretty slim at just 12.5mm thick, and the Levitatr sports a slick machined anodized aluminum chassis, with a glossy black polycarbonate face. The Levitatr also has a nifty built-in kickstand, perfect for supporting your tablet or other gadget at angels from 20 to 30 degrees.

At this point, the Levitatr is in the latter phases of prototyping, and will need your backing to get into production. James is currently raising funds over on Kickstarter, and a pledge of $79(USD) or more will get you one of the Levitatr keyboards should the project hit its goal of $60,000 in the next 41 days. Higher pledges will get you a special limited-edition version, or multiple keyboards to share with your friends.

Maybe James can use a little bit of the funds he raises to get a better microphone for the next time he shoots a promotional video.

Mobile houses were a pretty common thing in the past, if you consider nipa huts. But what makes this one different is because it’s made up of more than just wood and some leaves and trunks and is comprised of more than just a room or two.

NEAPO’s three-story office building weighs about 440,000 pounds, and measures almost 40 feet tall. It has been moved around by transporting it on a raft. It’s currently planted on Turku, which is located in the southeast coast of Finland, but the owners of the mobile building are planning on having it moved it another location pretty soon.

The building’s mobility is all because of how it was constructed (obviously). It was built using special, patented steel panels that provide the building with an equal amount of sturdiness that a cement building has, at just a fraction of the weight. It also makes the building more or less earthquake-proof.

[via Gizmodo via Coolest Gadgets]

Touching the pieces on display isn’t really something you’re supposed to do with the Mobile Museum either, but it’s interactive in a different way: you can contribute to the works of art to be featured. The folks behind the Mobile Museum are accepting submissions from artists, designers, illustrators, photographers and other practitioners of art.

The first viewing of the museum was held last April 12-17 at the Milan Furniture Fair, and the second exhibition was on July 29 (which was just a few days ago, so boo to everyone who missed it) at the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the Friday Late Summer Camp program.

Hopefully the Mobile Museum will schedule more exhibitions so the spirit of a different kind of art will be kept alive. This kind of museum, I’m definitely interested in checking out.

[via Yanko Design]

Depending on where you go to school, and how old you are, iPads might be allowed or not, but this handy case might make yours a little less conspicuous. The BinderPad created by ZooGue and the case fits your iPad into any 3-ring binder, and should keep your tablet safe and sound while lugging your books around.

The BinderPad is quite light, thin (½ inch) and durable. It’s definitely an interesting case if you’re at school a lot and use your iPad much. It will cost you $29.99 (USD) over at ZooGue and it’s available in black or gray, and only works for the iPad 2.

[via Cool Hunting]

I’ve never really been a fan of 3D. Maybe it’s because I wear glasses most of the time, and putting on 3D glasses on top of them is just plain awkward. However, this little PMP lets you enjoy 3D without using any glasses. It’s got an LED backlit lenticular LCD panel with a 3D engine that can display native 3D content, as well as convert 2D to simulated 3D on-the-fly. It’s got an 8-inch screen, with a 1280×768 screen resolution, and onboard storage of 4GB.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The good news is that it costs only $169 (USD). Too bad you’ll probably still get a headache from watching it.

[via Marvel Digital]

Both models are compatible with USB 3.0, meaning that they’ll not just look spiffy, but be quite speedy. Also, the housing looks minimal and elegant, since it’s mostly made out of brushed aluminum. The aluminum is scratch-proof, so you won’t have to worry about scuffing it up too quickly. As I’ve learned from my own MacBook Pro, aluminum works great for dissipating heat too.

The mobile version comes in 500GB and 1TB capacities, while the desktop version is available in 1TB or 2TB sizes. The mobile version starts at $109.99 (USD), while the desktop ranges from $119.99 to $159.99.

[via LaCie]

Designers Ma Yiwei and Tao Ying created the Anderson notebook to fit somewhere in-between the netbook and tablet form-factors, and I think they did a great job with their concept. The system would be about the size of a small tablet, but would have a cool keyboard module which could be used in either portrait or landscape modes.

An ingenious 2-way hinge mechanism would enable the keyboard to flip between a notebook mode and a laptop mode. I’m a little concerned about how sturdy that hinge would need to be, especially if it needs to carry cables inside of it, but if the keyboard used Bluetooth to connect to the system, then that would be less of an issue.

The entire system would measure in at just 6.5″ square, and about .67″ thick, even when closed. I guess that’s the other design concern I have. I’ve got big fingers, and have enough trouble typing on those netbooks with keys that are just a little smaller than normal ones. This would definitely not be a device that I’d want to write an essay on, but for quick emails and web surfing, it would probably be more than sufficient.

Like all of the concept designs featured in the Fujitsu Design Competition, this one will probably never see the light of day, but I’m hopeful that some of the ideas which these creative industrial designers have suggested might find their way into real products some day.

[via Yanko Design]

The entire phone is pink and the phones in the promotional image have a similarly pink and flowery wallpaper to boot. Need I say more?

I don’t know about you, but I’m a girl myself and I do not really find this phone appealing. I mean, it looks okay and all that, but I think there’s such a thing as too much of a thing. Appearances aside, it’s a smartphone that is capable of displaying 3D graphics on a 960×540 3.7-inch display. It runs on Android 2.3 and even has an 8.5 megapixel CMOS camera to boot. You can also use the AQUOS as a mobile wallet and watch some TV  on it, and typing is made really easy on it with the slide-out keypad.

All these features make the phone seem and sound more worthwhile. I just can’t swallow all that pink, though. Maybe if it came in black or white… Now that’s more up my alley.

[via Gizmodiva via New Launches]

If you’re one of those people that always listens to music when they walk around or work, then you’ll probably like this app. It dynamically generates playlists from your music library based on how you’re feeling, not just your musical tastes. You just tweak the various mood and tempo sliders on the front of your smartphone, and the app does the rest. The music is profiled via general emotions and then tinkered and refined to your personal specifications. It’s also got the handy ability to pull in recommendations for songs you don’t already own and preview them before you buy.

The latest version can even use geolocation data to modify recommendations based on what other people in your area like more than other areas of the world. That’s not all. You can also share your mood via Facebook or Twitter, which is kind of cool, but ultimately might end up broadcasting more info than you want.

Moodagent is available for the iPhone, Android and Nokia smartphones (USD).

[via Ubergizmo]

Basically, the demo is a modified version of the Rally Ball game from Kinect Adventures. The tricky part is how the people with the mobiles phone can secretly adjust the position of the hurling dodgeballs on their screens without the person who’s flailing around knowing what’s coming. Check it out in the video below:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Pretty neat, eh? You could see potential for any sort of game where you don’t want the player on screen to know what the other players are up to. For instance, it might be fun for a big screen version of Battleship – where each player inputs the position of their ships on their mobile phone, and the results show up on screen.

That said, the same could be achieved if Microsoft ever decided to make a game controller with a built-in touchscreen – so if the Windows Phone 7 thing doesn’t work out, they could always just go with that.

[YouTube via MaxConsole]

The trailer theater uses a LED projector that gets juice from that solar panel outside and stores it in lithium ion batteries inside to provide power for the theater to view short films. Apparently, the theater focuses mostly on flicks with a message and nothing with too much violence.

The theater seats eight people and has screened about 400 films so far. I don’t think I could watch a flick without some popcorn and AC blasting though; it looks like it would get hot inside that tiny theater.

[via AOL News]

Created by SaltyandSweet, this Pac-Man mobile features the likenesses of Pac-Man himself,  Blinky, Inky, a blue ghost on the run, and some delicious black cherries.

Each mobile is made from laser cut solid matte board and sells for $33 (USD) over on Etsy. You can also request Ms. Pac-Man if you prefer. No word on whether you can get a pretzel instead of the cherries, though.

The connectivity is courtesy of a base station that Swedish provider TeliaSonera set up near the village of Gorakshep in the Everest region. The thing that pisses me off about this is that a person in one of the most inhospitable environments on the planet can get 3G.

YET, AT&T can’t get its shit together well enough to give me reliable 3G coverage five miles outside of the largest city in this area of Texas. The new 3G connection for Everest means that climbers will be able to call for help if they get in trouble rather than relying on satellite phones, plus they can Tweet about their frostbite.

Facebook is apparently not developing their own phones, but working with INQ Mobile to come up with two smartphones, which will feature heavy Facebook integration. The devices will probably tie-in with AT&T’s network and are expected to be released in Europe in the first half of 2011 and in the US in the second half.

While I think it’s an interesting idea, I can’t imagine what benefit it would have over any other smartphone with a Facebook app running on it. Besides, I don’t use Facebook all that much these days anyhow, so no, I won’t be buying one.

[via Bloomberg]

This little gizmo will work with mobile devices, digital cameras and portable gaming systems. That’s pretty cool, although I wonder how much footage they will be able to capture with their limited storage. There aren’t many details available, however Sharp says that the module will allow you to shoot both 3D photos and 3D videos in 720p.

If you thought this was going to be released in a few years, you’d be wrong because Sharp plans on shipping these to hardware makers as early as July. Mass production will follow later this year. I guess it won’t be long before kids will be shooting 3D footage with their Nintendo DS gaming systems.

[via Crunchgear]